open and closed as he saw Ruben doing slowly brought the ringing sound to a dull roar, through which he could hear the quiet whispers of his men cursing. They weren't actually swearing quietly Bill discovered as he tried out a few profanities of his own, his ears just were not working yet. Ruben leaned in close and yelled, “That is about like I remember air strikes; Never on time or where you wanted them.”
“I didn't even see the planes!” Bill yelled back.
“You're not supposed to. They go fast, remember? Plus with all these trees around us, we only would have spotted them if they came up or down the river. We better check on the boys, that was awful close.”
Bill and Ruben stumbled into the dust to round up their men. They started first with Jerome and Dan, who had been sleeping next to their feet. Both men were awake and Jerome was sporting a fresh wet spot in the crotch of his trousers. They left him in the care of Dan and headed to the bridge, the other squadmates were all there and unwounded with the exception of Javier who had been hit by a piece of debris from the explosion, it had nicked the side of his head, cutting long, shallow gash just above his ear that was bleeding profusely. His squad buddy, Matt was already getting ready to put a bandage on the wound, Ruben stopped to assist him while Bill made sure the rest of the men were okay. By the time Jerome and Dan came up to the bridge Javier was bandaged and the dust had settled enough to allow them to see the far bank across the river.
“Where are the trees man?” Javier asked.
“No, where are the zombies?” Matt said, with a laugh, “I guess we need a few more runs like that to clear them all out for good.
“Listen.” Ruben said, straining to hear the pop-pop-pop of gunfire. “Sounds like they still have problems across the way.”
“Yeah, the fields over there didn't get hit. But the bridge did, look at it!” said Javier pointing. The squad had been walking forward along the bridge to assess the situation and damage better. Ahead of them the entire right side of the bridge was just gone. The twisted rail on that side had not fallen in, it spanned the hole alone and forlorn.
“Can we still get over it?” Matt asked, looking at the hole where gravel and dirt were still falling into the river far below.
“I think so, if we keep to the left hand side and hug the railing.” Bill answered. “We better go try and help those guys now. Vic, Jerome, Matt and Javier you come with me. Kirk, Larry, Dan and Ruben, you stay here and keep any zombies that lived from coming over the bridge. Lets go grab ammo and one of the spare rifles to take with us. I want to get out of here before the zombies come back.”
Before the men had a chance to recover or protest Bill's orders Ruben yelled, “Let's move people! Do you want to get caught by them when they come back? Now is the chance to get in there and bring our boys back across the river. Go! Vic, you get the rifle and one of those packs I have sitting by the tracks. No! The other side, by the truck. Jerome, take the second pack and it is your lucky day, grab those three grenades. Matt and Javier, you each get packs too.”
“Why isn't Bill carrying an extra pack?” complained Jerome.
“He is an old man you idiot, he wouldn't be going at all except someone with brains has to go along to make sure you don't screw up. Now more moving and less talking. Vic and Jerome you head out in front, like they taught you in training, Matt and Javier you will be in the second rank, stay about fifteen feet behind the others, all of you get to the bridge and look for a way towards the fields, wait there for Bill, he will be along in a minute. Now go!” The men harried along by Ruben didn't have a chance to protest and Bill could only marvel at the older man's handiwork. His smile disappeared when Ruben turned on him and pointed to another pack, this one sitting in the back of the truck.
“I knew I'd have one too.” he sighed.
“Only officers don't work in this army, it is bad for morale if you don't pull your weight.” Bill hefted the pack, it had to weight thirty pounds. “You'll thank me for packing it heavy if our buddies need ammo. Yours has three more grenades in it too.” Bill already had two hand grenades on his belt.
“You packed all this up in a half an hour?”
“Me and Larry yeah, no problem for old hands like us. Each pack also has a canteen of water in it. You better get moving and eat another one of those power bars on the way. You need the food, it will keep you alert.”
“Yes mom!” Bill said with a grin.
“Don't give me that old man! I was retired from fighting before you were even born!”
Bill was able to get around the hole in the bridge with little difficulty, the gravel had fallen away into the water, making it look like a sinkhole more than an old railway bed. Underneath all the gravel was a concrete bridge supporting everything, enough gravel had fallen away to reveal that it was cracked and buckled, but it looked like it would hold for awhile. Reaching his men Bill saw the devastation of the bombs up close for the first time. He let out a long low whistle. There were body parts all over the riverbank where there had formerly been zombies. A few of the things were already creeping back and there were dozens, if not hundreds of slowly squirming zombies moving around on and through the tilled up earth.
“It looks like my dad's garden, just after he got it ready for planting.” Matt said.
Bill nodded, “You ready up ahead?”
“Yeah.” Vic said, smirking when he saw Bill lugging a pack.
“What you think I can't carry my own weight Vic? Watch out for zombie pieces and get us to those fields before any more show up here.”
Bill's words of advice were well heeded as zombies crawled towards them with whatever bits of them were left to move them around. A torso with a head attached, naked, white and dirt streaked, moaned at them as they walked by, all four of the zombie's limbs were gone, severed neatly close to it's body. The thing's flaccid penis was untouched and wiggling like a worm as the zombie flailed around uselessly in a quest to get closer to one of the men and bite him.
Vic led them about two hundred yards up stream before he had to fire at a zombie coming out of the woods towards them. The old woman with bluish white hair was missing part of her jaw and her right arm ended in a bloody stump at the elbow. Her dark skin and black clothing gave Vic quite a start, who thought she resembled a neighbor back in his apartment complex, one quick shot to the head brought her down, but also brought several other zombies running through the brush at them. Bill, Matt and Javier came abreast to Vic and Jerome and began firing as the zombies came at them slowly through the trees.
“We gotta keep moving, lets head to the right and keep pressing forward.” Bill said.
“There are too many, we gotta kill some of them first.” said Vic, firing rapidly.
“No if we stay here we'll get pinned down, our fire is drawing them to us, Jerome, head right, Javier, follow him. Matt you count to fifteen and then you and Vic break off and follow us.” Not waiting to see if the other two would follow or not Bill turned and went after Jerome and Javier. Bill had been playing a hunch that there would be a path by the side of the river. This close to the athletics fields he suspected kids and fishermen would have trampled a path through the trees in their search for fun and fish. Jerome found the path Bill had hoped for and started jogging forward along it, not firing at any zombies for a good three hundred yards. The firing behind them had stopped and when Bill looked back he saw Matt and Vic coming along behind them. The trees didn't let him see much further back than that and he hoped there were no zombies following Vic.
After moving forward another hundred yards Jerome stopped at a wider path that looked like it led up into a cleared area, which would probably be the first of many soccer fields. Bill gestured at him to go up, and whispered, “Stop at the edge of the trees, don't let anything see you.”
They worked their way up the path into the dense brush surrounding the edge of the mowed lawn. Sure enough it was a soccer field and it was empty. From where they were the group could see across four or five fields lengthwise to a mob of zombies that had the concession stand mobbed. Periodically a shot would ring out from the stand and a zombie would fall back to be trampled to the ground. The concession stand had so many bodies around it that the zombies had been able to crawl up onto the roof of the place. Looking at it Bill said, “Okay we have to make sure not to fire at the building, our bullets will go right through those doors and wooden shutters they have over the serving windows.”
“Look, over there Bill, I mean, uh, Sarge.” said Vic pointing beyond the concession stand towards the baseball diamonds, there was a centralized building with glass window about two stories high looking out over three different fields. In the window facing them was a soldier, frantically waving his arms, in one hand he had a
